30/04/2026
Do you know what an Apothecary is?
Before doctors were accessible to ordinary people and long before pharmaceuticals existed, the Apothecary was who your community turned to. They were the original medicine makers, herbalists, compounders, remedy brewers with shops stocked full of dried herbs, resins, tinctures and teas. They didn't just sell ingredients, they prepared remedies specific to the person who walked through the door. Physicians existed but they were educated, expensive and firmly for the wealthy. The Apothecary was for everyone else.
In England the Society of Apothecaries was founded in 1617, which tells you how seriously this practice was taken. The word itself comes from the Greek apotheke — meaning storehouse. A place where knowledge and remedies were kept.
What are Apothecaries today?
While modern apothecaries still hold many of the same values as our predecessors, the practice has evolved. For me personally, I consider myself a herbal alchemist rather than a herbalist, though the knowledge base is the same. Just ask my bookcase 😆
The difference is in the focus. A herbalist typically works with herbs to address internal health. My work is centred on the external, the effect of herbs on the body, the mind, the spirit and rooted in the traditional and folk uses of plants that long predate modern herbalism. Before herbs were studied in laboratories they were known through living relationships passed down through communities, woven into folklore, used in ritual and remedy alike. That older knowledge is what draws me.
I work closely with every plant I use. I grow them, I tend them, I learn from them. That relationship is part of the work. I'm particularly drawn to the magical aspects of plants — plant spirit work, the folk traditions of this land and my own ancestral roots.
From that place I make potions, teas and oils and skincare for mind, body and spirit in the old tradition, but rooted in my own practice.
I'd love to know what folk or herbal traditions do you use?
